Path Of Exile Starter bundle

Path Of Exile 3.26 adds recruitable mercenaries to the game. They can act as your followers, help you attract monsters’ hatred or act as DPS to clear monsters, provided that you can defeat them.

Although there are many mercenaries in the game, some of these mercenaries have auxiliary effect auras, and some have powerful output capabilities, but players can only recruit up to three of them, and can only choose one of them to fight with you, so choose the right mercenary for you. Players can change the equipment of these mercenaries and train them to upgrade them. After you reach the endgame, they can become your powerful helpers.

Manyshot

Stats: Dexterity

Skill Gems:

• Vaal Ice Shot
• Vaal Grace
• Frigid Fork Shot
• Mirror Arrow
• Grace
• Hatred

As a shooter, Manyshot mercenaries are not good at large-scale monster clearing, but they have two very useful auras, Grace and Hatred.

Hatred can retain 50% of the mana for each spell cast, and allows the player to convert part of the physical attack damage into cold damage. The latter additional effect may not be useful for all classes, and the former effect can allow you to release more skills.

Grace can increase the player’s dodge level, and since the monsters in Path of Exile are relatively powerful, this skill can improve the player’s survivability.

Bladecaster

Stats: Dexterity and Intelligence

Skill Gems:

• Clutches of the Damned
• Ethereal Knives
• Bladefall of Trarthus
• Blade Vortex
• Grace
• Aspect of the Spider

Bladecaster is a flexible mercenary with certain damage capabilities. He has two skills that can move slightly, and his Grace aura can increase the dodge level, so he can flexibly shuttle in the battlefield, dodge attacks and attack enemies.

If you have enough POE currency, you can give him some powerful equipment, and he will become your reliable damage dealer.

Cruel Mistress

Stats: Intelligence

Skill Gems:

• Despair
• Void Sphere
• Dark Pact
• Soulrend of Reaping
• Frostblink
• Zealotry

Cruel Mistress is both a powerful caster and a solid DPS buff. If your class is primarily based around Curse and Chaos, this mercenary is perfect for you.

Her Voltaxic Burst both deals with Lightning damage and slows enemies, while her Zealotry aura increases your spell power and spell critical chance, and her Despair aura reduces monster resistance to Chaos damage. In this type of game, reducing resistance is actually more effective than increasing your damage.

Fallen Reverend

Stats: Strength and Intelligence

Skill Gems:

• Absolution
• Raise Spectre Of Transience
• Desecrate
• Reinforce: Fallen Bishop
• Zealotry
• Wrath

Fallen Reverend has two useful auras, a minion summoning skill, and a taunting Warcry, making him a pretty good taunt tank.

This makes many unique items that players don’t want to use useful again. You can give your Fallen Reverend these unique items with certain negative effects. For example, Sign Of The Sin Eater, this unique item can prevent elemental ailments. Or, Brinerot Flag, when the mercenary releases a Warcry, it can increase your mana regeneration.

In fact, mercenaries make these unpopular unique items valuable again. Even if you don’t use these unique items, you can trade them for POE Divine Orbs.

Eruptor

Stats: Strength

Skill Gems:

• Infernal Cry
• Volcanic Fissure Of Snaking
• Consecrated Path
• Molten Shell
• Determination
• Flamelink

Eruptor is a pure power mercenary, and its violence is beyond words. He can cause flaming mountain damage and stun enemies. His two auras can increase your armor and fire resistance, and he comes with high armor.

If you are willing to train him, he can almost clear a map by himself, and you just need to pick up currency and weapons behind him. But if you want him to clear monsters on advanced maps, you’d better equip him with a high-output two-handed weapon.

Flaming Charlatan

Stats: Strength and Intelligence

Skill Gems:

• Purifying Flame
• Meteor
• Scorching Ray Totem
• Holy Mortar
• Anger
• Herald Of Ash

Flaming Charlatan is similar to Fallen Reverend, but he is more of a fire caster. His skills can deal fire damage to enemies in a large area, and he also has multiple auras to assist you.

Flaming Charlatan can be used as a DPS and clear monsters, but if your build is mainly flame damage, you can cooperate with him better.

Kineticist

Stats: Strength, Intelligence and Dexterity

Skill Gems:

• Elemental Weakness
• Flame Wall
• Kinetic Bolt
• Kinetic Blast
• Haste
• Frostblink

Kineticist and Sanguimancer can adapt to three attributes, but Kineticist has more skills and richer elements, and three attributes also mean that Kineticist can choose unique items more freely.

Besides dealing elemental damage, Kineticist’s Elemental Weakness skill can reduce the enemy’s elemental resistance. This is a very powerful skill because it is not limited to a single element, which allows any builds that use elemental damage to benefit from it. There are very few builds that do not have any elemental damage.

There are many mercenaries, so don’t just recruit them when you see a mercenary with the “Infamous” modifier. Before you choose a mercenary, check in advance whether his skills can support you, and the best mercenaries are those that can cooperate with you.

The content updated in Path of Exile 3.26 completely reshapes the previous build ranking. Players can now more easily get POE currency, which makes it easier for players to adjust their builds, but it is still very difficult to get top-level equipment.

So what builds can be played in POE 3.26, and where does the build you are playing rank, and what are its advantages and disadvantages? Since the build combination of Path of Exile is very free and complex, the following only ranks some more classic and popular builds.

Tier C

• Archmage Poison Spark Pathfinder Build: You can pass the level smoothly, but the gameplay is complicated and the equipment requirements are high.
• Ice Shot Mines Deadeye Build: Poor survivability, not flexible enough, and cannot deal with high-level monsters.
• Archmage Detonate Dead of Chain Pathfinder Build: Pathfinder has dragged down Archmage’s mana and recovery ability, and requires top-level equipment.
• Tri Stack Penance Brand Build: It is cumbersome in fast-paced battles.
• Icicle Mines Deadeye Build: It is good at farming maps, but it will be difficult to deal with bosses.
• Detonate Dead Scavenging Chieftain Build: Its survivability is not stable enough, and the farming speed is slow.

Tier C builds are not suitable for this version. Even if you use POE Divine Orb to exchange them for top-level equipment, they are not only still behind other builds, but also have various defects.

Tier B

• Righteous Fire Chieftain Build: It is quite versatile and good at defense, but it may be difficult to deal with bosses.
• Holy Relic Necromancer Build: It has low equipment requirements, fast farming speed, but lacks single burst, suitable for beginners.
• Shield Crush Champion Build: It has reliable defense, but the farming speed is not fast, suitable for hardcore players.
• Toxic Rain Pathfinder Build: It has high damage and clearing ability, but it is cumbersome when facing bosses.
• Penance Brand Inquisitor Build: High damage, but gear-dependent.

Tier B Build is enough for novice players to pass the game smoothly, and it is outstanding in some aspects, but the damage limit or farming speed is not at the top level.

Tier A

• Flicker Strike Slayer Build: High operation difficulty, but the farming map and clearance speed are very fast.
• Cyclone Shockwave Slayer Build: DPS is not the highest, but its powerful life stealing and close combat capabilities allow you to fight smoothly.
• Explosive Trap Trickster Build: Farming speed and leveling are very quick, and it also has certain survivability, but it is still far from S Tier.
• Power Siphon Archmage Totem Build: It will be powerful after the critical hit bonus, good at clearing the map and dealing with bosses, but a bit bulky.
• Exsanguinate Mines Trickster Build: It has a wonderful ability to create DoT damage, but you need to know how to play it.
• Lightning Arrow Deadeye Build: Good for farming and dealing with bosses, but a bit fragile.
• Retaliation Bleed Gladiator Build: Very good survivability, but slow.
• Explosive Arrow Ballista Golementalist Build: Very good for solo players, and it can deal with bosses and farm maps safely, but not fast enough.
• Boneshatter Berserker Build: High damage limit, can self-heal, but requires good timing and equipment.
• Storm Burst Totems Build: Needs some time to stack damage, and it is good for farming and dealing with bosses.
• Summon Raging Spirits Necromancer Build: Suitable for casual players, summons are durable and deadly, and can also deal with bosses.
• Blink Arrow Guardian Build: Can deal with bosses safely, but not mainstream and the damage is a bit behind S Tier.
• Lightning Strike Slayer Build: High damage, but equipment-dependent.

A Tier builds can already meet the needs of most players. As long as you don’t pursue high damage and clearance speed, there is not much difference between Tier A and S for you. If you can use POE currency to exchange for top-level equipment for equipment-dependent builds, they will not be inferior to S Tier builds at all.

Tier S

• Ground Slam Slayer Build: With incredible combo ability and life stealing ability, it may be the best melee build in the current version.
• Poison Concoction Slayer Build: Low equipment requirements, strong survivability, and fast farming speed.
• Smite Of Divine Judgement Slayer Build: The character can not only hit the tank heavily, but also does not rely on equipment and can continuously output.
• Explosive Concoction Slayer Build: Toxins provide high burst and clearing capabilities, and can survive in high-difficulty games.
• Poison Concoction Bouncing Pathfinder Build: One of the strongest builds in endgame, its damage can melt bosses.
• Archmage Vortex Hierophant Build: Tank with high damage output
• Volcanic Fissure Berserker Build: As a Berserker, it has high burst damage, but also can be a tank.

S Tier builds are the best builds in Path of Exile 3.26. They are not dependent on equipment, have high burst and excellent survivability. If you want to farm more efficiently in the endgame, then S Tier builds are your best choice.

There are more builds in Path of Exile 3.26, of course. If you have any builds that have the potential to reach S Tier, or if you think which builds should be adjusted up or down, you can also share your views.